Universe Today

Some sobering news from a recent rocket science conference: It is highly improbable that humans will ever explore beyond the Solar System. This downbeat opinion comes from the Joint Propulsion Conference in Hartford, Connecticut, where future space propulsion challenges were discussed and debated. It is widely acknowledged that any form of interstellar travel would require huge advances in technology, but it would seem that the advances required are in the realms of science fiction and are not feasible. Using current technology would take tens of thousands of years, and even advanced concepts could take hundreds. But above all else, there is the question of fuel: How could a trip to Proxima Centauri be achieved if we'd need 100 times more energy than the entire planet currently generates?
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Filed under: Space Exploration, Space Flight | 36 Comments »

NASA will add a system engineers equated to shock absorbers to Ares 1 rockets to reduce significant vibrations that could shake the Orion spacecraft and astronaut crews during early stages of the flight. Earlier, engineers had determined that at about 115 seconds into the flight, the Ares rocket would vibrate for about 5 seconds, enough to potentially make it difficult for crews to read console displays. To mitigate what's called thrust oscillation, engineers have proposed an active tuned mass absorber that would detect the frequency and amplitude of the thrust oscillation with accelerometers and internal pressure sensors, and use battery-powered motors to move spring mounted weights up and down to damp the vibration out. A spring-and-damper ring will separate the first and second stages of the rocket, and 16 actuators that act like shock absorbers will be added to the bell-shaped aft skirt at the bottom of the rocket.
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Filed under: Constellation, NASA | 9 Comments »

More early morning frost is showing up on the Phoenix spacecraft. The Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) took several pictures of the "Telltale" on the Phoenix Mars Lander, the device used to measure wind velocities at the landing site on Mars and created a movie of bright specks of frost accumulating on the mirror of the Telltale. The movie was created from a series of images taken by the Surface Stereo Imager (SSI)between 12:54 a.m. and 2:34 a.m. during the 80th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Aug. 15, 2008 here on Earth). Sorry, we couldn't load the movie on this page, the file was too big. But follow this link to see it — the frost is very cool (pun intended).
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Filed under: Mars, Missions | 1 Comment »

Topical Storm Fay has made landfall along Florida's southwest coastline and is working inland. Officials at NASA's Kennedy Space Center have decided to close down operations for 24 hours as a precautionary measure. Kennedy's 15,000 staff have been instructed to stay at home, although a small number of emergency personnel remain on site to monitor the storm's effect on the space complex. The Kennedy Visitor Center has also been closed. Fay had been forecast to make landfall as a much more powerful entity and there were concerns that the winds could reach hurricane force, but fortunately it remained classified as a tropical storm and damage has been limited…
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Filed under: NASA, Space Shuttle | No Comments »

Currently, launching 1 pound (.5 kilogram) of payload to space costs about $5,000 USD, so every little bit helps if engineers can cut down on the weight of the spacecraft. Scientists from the University of Michigan have patented their ideas for cutting down the size and weight of the thrusters used in space to maneuver and control the spacecraft. Usually these thrusters are fairly big; they can be as big as a refrigerator. But the new thrusters, called nano-thrusters, could be made into flat, low weight sheets and mounted on the sides of spacecraft. The new type of thrusters would save weight and fuel, while having a longer life as well.
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Filed under: Space Flight | 6 Comments »

We've all wondered at some point or another what mysteries our Solar System holds. After all, the eight planets (plus Pluto and all those other dwarf planets) orbit within a very small volume of the heliosphere (the volume of space dominated by the influence of the Sun), what's going on in the rest of the volume we call our home? As we push more robots into space, improve our observational capabilities and begin to experience space for ourselves, we learn more and more about the nature of where we come from and how the planets have evolved. But even with our advancing knowledge, we would be naive to think we have all the answers, so much still needs to be uncovered. So, from a personal point of view, what would I consider to be the greatest mysteries within our Solar System? Well, I'm going to tell you my top ten favourites of some more perplexing conundrums our Solar System has thrown at us. So, to get the ball rolling, I'll start in the middle, with the Sun. (None of the following can be explained by dark matter, in case you were wondering… actually it might, but only a little…)
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Filed under: Astronomy, Cosmology, Physics, Planetary Formation, Solar Astronomy, Space Flight | 36 Comments »

Remember a few months ago when "space" seemed to be a non-issue for the candidates in this year's US presidential election? But now space seems to be a hot topic. John McCain was in Florida today where he met with 20 leaders from the space industry for a roundtable discussion, and Barack Obama was in Florida last week, to stump for votes. Perhaps both candidates are recalling the 2000 presidential election that hinged on the Florida vote. Hanging chads aside, an important issue in Florida these days is the projected job losses that will be incurred in the gap after the space shuttle is retired in 2010 and before the Constellation program makes its first flights in about 2015, and both candidates have met with members of NASA's workforce and other NASA officials to discuss this issue. Also, both McCain and Obama recently updated their positions on their space-related agendas on their websites, with both devoting quite a bit of "space" to space.
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Filed under: NASA | 15 Comments »

NASA has terminated a contract with the company it hired to design and construct new spacesuits for use with the new Orion spacecraft after determining it made a mistake in evaluating costs. In terminating the contract NASA hopes to avoid litigation. In June, NASA announced it had selected Oceaneering International, Inc. to build the new spacesuits, but Hamilton Sundstrand, the lead contractor that has supplied spacesuits for NASA since the 1960's filed a formal protest with the Government Accounting Office on the decision, asking NASA to review its reasoning on the contract award. Hamilton Sundstrand disagreed with the way NASA evaluated the costs for their proposal. NASA has now issued a press release saying "corrective action is appropriate," and they have "determined that a compliance issue requires the termination of the contract" with Oceaneering "for the convenience of the government." It appears NASA did some bad math, or used questionable processes to make its decision for the contract.
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Filed under: Astronomy | 4 Comments »

Astronomers announced today that a new "minor planet" with an unusual orbit has been found just two billion miles from Earth, closer than Neptune. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, astronomers detected a small, comet-like object called 2006 SQ372, which is likely made of rock and ice. However, its orbit never brings it close enough to the sun for it to develop a tail. Its unusual orbit is an ellipse that is four times longer than it is wide, said University of Washington astronomer Andrew Becker, who led the discovery team. The only known object with a comparable orbit is Sedna — the distant, Pluto-like dwarf planet discovered in 2003. But 2006 SQ372's orbit takes it more than one-and-a-half times further from the Sun, and its orbital period is nearly twice as long.
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Filed under: Astronomy | 35 Comments »

If you read this week's SkyWatcher's Forecast, then you knew several areas of the world were in for a partial lunar eclipse event. While the Moon basically just did a glancing pass through the umbral shadow, the effect was still dramatic and I was hoping that at least one photographer out there would have a picture and story to share! Click to continue…

Filed under: Astrophotos, Eclipses | 5 Comments »

India will send their first mission to the Moon in September. Chandrayaan-1 has been built and will be launched from Indian soil and sent on a mission to study the lunar surface. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will use its highly successful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to get the lunar probe into space. This is an impressive mission for a small space agency, making huge strides in the exploration of space…
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Filed under: Moon, Space Flight | 10 Comments »

Cosmic voids really are devoid of matter. Astronomers have found that even the pervasive 'dark matter' which accounts for about 80% of the mass of the universe is not present in these voids, which are areas of vast emptiness in space that can be tens of millions of light-years across. "Astronomers have wondered for a quarter-century whether these voids were 'too big' or 'too empty' to be explained by gravity alone," said University of Chicago researcher Jeremy Tinker, who led the new study using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II (SDSS-II). "Our analysis shows that the voids in these surveys are exactly as big and as empty as predicted by the 'standard' theory of the universe."
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Filed under: Dark Matter, galaxies | 26 Comments »

It's getting a little nippy at night on Mars. The Phoenix lander's Surface Stereo Imager took this image at 6 a.m. on Sol 79 (August 14, 2008 here on Earth), and a thin layer of water frost is visible on the ground around the landing area. From subsequent images, the frost begins to disappear shortly after this image was taken as the sun rises on the Phoenix landing site.
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Filed under: Mars, Missions | 19 Comments »

On August 2nd, SpaceX made the surprise announcement that the third flight of the Falcon 1 rocket system would launch at 8pm (PST) that day. The world rushed to watch the first commercial flight of this impressive private-sector rocket via the web from a live feed on board. The first launch attempt was aborted due to a minor parameter fluctuation of 1% out of "normal" operating conditions, but the launch crew very quickly re-fuelled and prepared Falcon 1 for a second launch attempt within the hour. The second launch attempt appeared to be flawless, Merlin 1c engine roaring to life, lifting the rocket into the atmosphere. All seemed good, SpaceX seemed on track and very confident. However, minutes into the flight, the live video feed was cut and it was being reported an anomaly had occurred. It wasn't until later in the week that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave details about the "anomaly." SpaceX recently released video footage of the entire launch, up to the point where the stage separation problem occurred, spinning the ill-fated vehicle out of control…
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Filed under: Space Flight | 9 Comments »

The halo of stars that envelops the outer Milky Way galaxy is like a "jumble of pasta" said one researcher, describing criss-crossed patterns of stellar streams revealed in new data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). These stars appear to have been ripped away from the dwarf galaxies that are companions to our own galaxy, creating messy, spaghetti-like streams of stars in the outer edge of the Milky Way. The SEGUE (Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration) of the Sloan Survey is mapping the structure and stellar makeup of the Milky Way Galaxy and has found numerous new small streams of stars mixed and tangled among larger streams that had been mapped out over the last decade. It appears the Milky Way's thievery is creating quite a mess.
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Filed under: galaxies | 8 Comments »

Last week, we posted the image above as part of our "Where In The Universe" challenge, where we test our readers' visual knowledge of our universe. This incredible and unusual Hubble image of object N44F, known as the "Celestial Geode" is a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a hot young star. Readers were fascinated by the object and wanted to know more. One of our regular readers, Jorge, asked this question about N44F: "Why is it that we see the back "wall" of the bubble, we see the side walls, but we don't see the front wall?" I wasn't able to answer that question, so I sought out one of the astronomers responsible for this image, Dr. You-Hua Chu, professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Not only did Dr. Chu provide wonderful information about the image, but one of her former students, Dr. Rosie Chen provided Universe Today with an exclusive Spitzer Space Telescope image of the Celestial Geode that has never been published before on the internet.
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Filed under: Astronomy | 5 Comments »

After a 60-day checkout period, science operations have begun in earnest for GLAST, the Gamma ray Large Area Space Telescope, which is now surveying the gamma-ray sky. Launched on June 11, 2008, the GLAST spacecraft has been undergoing calibrations of the two instruments on board, the LAT (Large Area Telescope) and the GBM (GLAST Burst Monitor) — more details on the instruments in a moment. But during the checkout phase both instruments made significant observations of gamma rays. "Given that these detections were made with just the engineering data observations, the future is full of promise, and we are very excited," said Dr. Steve Ritz, GLAST Project Scientist in his GLAST blog. At the end of August, there will be a formal release of the first-light images taken by the spacecraft. Also at that time, NASA will rename the observatory. I don't know about you, but I'm sort of attached to the name "GLAST." But it will be interesting to find out its new, official name.
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Filed under: Gamma Ray Bursts, Satellites | 10 Comments »

Since Universe Today's Ian O'Neill first introduced the idea of Google Earth's 4D Ionosphere tool, it set my mind to wondering - wondering if the ionospheric changes caused by a meteor shower could be distinguished and used by those armed with a little knowledge and the program. That was months ago. Why wait so long before telling what I've discovered? Because any type of investigation of this sort requires a long history of scientific method based controls, lots of research, worldwide observations and… a few meteor showers. Click to continue…

Filed under: Astronomy | 3 Comments »

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Heads up to observers in most of Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and South America for Saturday night's partial lunar eclipse. For everyone else, be sure to keep a watch on western ecliptic plane as Mercury, Venus and Saturn join together for a dazzling weekend show! Although the Moon, will keep us in the "pits" we'll still take a look at the "Eye of the Archer" and go "Butterfly" hunting. Now, let's wait on night and slip outside… Together. Click to continue…

Filed under: Astronomy, What's Up | 2 Comments »

On August 3rd, the new animated movie "Fly Me to the Moon" premiered at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in Hollywood, LA. In a very fortunate turn of events Fraser sent me there to watch the first US screening of this "made for 3D" space-exploration adventure. I've been bursting to write a review on the experience, but I had to wait until the film went on general release on August 15th before I could spill the beans. Now the day has come, here's the inside story of this visually stunning tale about three flies (yes, the insects) that hitch a ride on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the Moon…
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Filed under: Moon | 8 Comments »

Cassini scientists have been "bee-busy" poring over the images from the August 11 flyby of Saturn's geyser-spewing moon Enceladus, says Carolyn Porco, the lead for the imaging team. And quickly, they have found exactly what they were looking for: Cassini has pinpointed precisely where the icy jets erupt from the moon's geologically active moon surface. Enceladus. "This is the mother lode for us," said Porco, "a place that may ultimately reveal just exactly what kind of environment — habitable or not — we have within this tortured little moon."
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Filed under: Saturn | 6 Comments »

The conflict between Georgia and Russia over the disputed region of South Ossetia may have huge consequences for NASA's ability to send astronauts to the International Space Station in the future. The US has criticised the Russian military action, prompting concerns for the future NASA use of the Russian Soyuz space vehicle. This comes at a particularly critical time, as concerns were already high due to the Shuttle decommissioning in 2010. The US is only allowed to use Soyuz up until 2011 as that is when the exemption from the Iran Non-Proliferation Act runs out. If US-Russian relations turn even more sour, an extension to the exemption may not be allowed, freezing the US out of any involvement with routine manned access into space. US Senator Bill Nelson (Democrat), an outspoken critic of the government's funding of the US space program, has brought these concerns to light blaming the Bush administration for an over reliance on Russia for future space access…
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Filed under: Military, NASA, Space Station | 28 Comments »

A debate today between astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson and planetary scientist Mark Sykes, moderated by NPR's Ira Flatow, addressed the issue of Pluto's planetary status. There was lots of arm-waving and finger-pointing, endless interruptions, disagreements on details big and small, and battling one-liners. The two scientists sat at a table with the moderator between them and Flatow was often obscured by Tyson and Sykes getting in each other's faces in eye-to-eye confrontation. At one point, Flatow was hit by Tyson's ebullient arm motions. Yes, it was heated. But it was fun, too. It ended up being not so much a debate between the Pluto-huggers and the Pluto-haters as a disagreement over the lexicon of astronomy and planetary science and, primarily, the definition of a planet. Pluto's planetary status was definitely not decided here, and the debate concluded with an amicable agree-to-disagree concurrence that the scientific process is an ongoing, evolving practice. But it wasn't without fireworks.
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Filed under: Pluto, Science | 23 Comments »

Psychologists meeting this week at the American Psychological Association's 116th Annual Convention are taking the time to discuss the challenges astronauts will face on the longer missions planned for NASA's return to the moon and missions to Mars. Presenters at the first every symposium to address the psychological aspects of long-term spaceflight outlined the mental health challenges and introduced a new interactive computer program that will help address psychosocial issues in space. Psychologists said longer missions mean astronauts will be faced with immense psychological pressures as they adjust to being so far away from Earth, which could lead to depression and interpersonal conflicts. "Lessons learned from the past, research in extreme environments, training, conditioning, and countermeasures for psychological stress are some of the things NASA is in the process of addressing for the upcoming age of exploration," said psychologist Marc Shepanek, PhD, from the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer at NASA.
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Filed under: Space Flight | 5 Comments »

What is Mars ubiquitous dust really like, close-up? Scientists from the Phoenix missions are finding out with the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), an instrument that is providing the highest magnification of anything seen from another world. A couple of months ago the Phoenix Mars Lander used its optical microscope to image small grains of the Martian soil. Now, the spacecraft has switched on the AFM to take the first-ever 3-dimensional image of a single particle of Mars' dust. The AFM can detail the shapes of particles as small as about 100 nanometers, about one one-thousandth the width of a human hair. That is about 100 times greater magnification the optical microscope. The article is rounded, and about one micrometer, or one millionth of a meter, across. It is a speck of the dust that cloaks Mars. Such dust particlets color the Martian sky pink, feed storms that regularly envelop the planet and produce Mars' distinctive red soil.
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Filed under: Mars, Missions | 1 Comment »